![vanilla sky vanilla sky](http://movieswithmae.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ujMy9P4VczTW9YSpAM31uqdOMpz-683x1024.jpg)
When he reaches what should be the busiest crossroads, the emptiness goes from surprising to shocking, and he’s left with no choice but to step out and marvel at the unpopulated metropolis. In either case, we begin with a dream so unsubtle that even the script can’t pretend it’s mysterious: a fabulously wealthy man wakes up in his luxurious apartment, drives out of his building’s subterranean garage, and gradually realizes the city is vacant. And nowhere in my decades of film fandom have I encountered a more fascinating case of self-indulgence than the diptych of Abre los ojos and Vanilla Sky, two films identical in plot but divergent in story, one told and the other shouted, one chilly and distant and the other seeming to have been shot from inside the most passionate depths of the director’s soul. But I also know there’s a chance I’ll end up experiencing something extraordinary. I can’t deny the risk I run by repeatedly leaning in as artists embrace outright self-indulgence I know there’s a good chance I’ll end up inviting a regrettable slog.
![vanilla sky vanilla sky](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X91cLfsKP4s/T-GQlGPDSQI/AAAAAAAAB9o/BUzMVQAbxvM/s1600/vanilla-sky-2001-36314-1024x768.jpg)
This friend likes to mock my preference for “indulgent” works by “indulgent” storytellers, and I would never deny a taste for such maximalist works, the ones that come loaded with flaws by virtue of their glorious ambitions. This question occurred to me recently as I tried to contextualize a longstanding disagreement between myself and one of my oldest friends.
![vanilla sky vanilla sky](https://cdn.abicart.com/shop/16575/art75/h9835/178189835-origpic-95950a.jpg)
How do you respond when someone says, indulge me a minute? Do you roll your eyes, or do you lean in with interest?